How is the hour-of-day pattern worked out?

Every hourly price is divided by the same item’s average over the 24 hours around it, so a price drifting up or down over the month does not make one end of the day look dear, and the 24 hours are then centred so an average hour reads 1.000. The best buy window is the cheapest run of three hours and the best sell window the dearest. Hours are UTC, with the hour on the wall in the zone most of the market’s players keep beside them.

How much history does the pattern need?

Each hour of the day needs a few days of scans behind it before its figure means anything. The confidence line reads the thinnest hour: settled from ten days of scans, provisional from three, too early under that, and no pattern at all while fewer than half the hours have been scanned. Scanning Normal Horde US through the night fills the gaps.

Best hours to buy and sell

Pick a market and an item. Every hour of the day shows its typical price, lowest buyout and listings, and the page names the cheapest hours to buy, the dearest to sell, and what the gap is worth after the 5 percent cut.

On Normal Horde US, Green Hills of Stranglethorn - Page 18 is cheapest from 14:00 to 17:00 UTC (06:00 to 09:00 Pacific) and dearest from 22:00 to 01:00 UTC (14:00 to 17:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 170% after the 5 percent cut.

Current market: Normal Horde US. This browser opens every tool here until you pick another. Address for this market: ahledger.com/timing?market=forever/normal/horde/us

1MarketEach house keeps its own hours.2WindowDays of scans the hours are averaged over.3ItemKept while you switch market or window; type another below.

Item

Best hours to buy

14:00 to 17:00 UTC

06:00 to 09:00 Pacific · index 0.633 · typical 9s 10c

Best hours to sell

22:00 to 01:00 UTC

14:00 to 17:00 Pacific · index 1.461 · typical 25s 14c

Spread after the 5% cut

+170%

buy at the cheap hours' lowest buyout, sell at the dear hours' typical price

Confidence

Too early

Too early to trust: the thinnest hour has 1 day of scans behind it over the last 28 days. Read the windows as a hint, not a rule.

Green Hills of Stranglethorn - Page 18by hour · Normal Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	23s 66c	19s 83c	36	1.400	3
01:00	17:00	24s 96c	11s 50c	62	1.418	2
02:00	18:00	21s 75c	10s 74c	71	1.297	2
03:00	19:00	32s 33c	13s 46c	93	1.575	1
04:00	20:00	19s 24c	10s 73c	83	1.173	2
05:00	21:00	19s 29c	12s 15c	71	1.238	3
06:00	22:00	14s 75c	11s	43	1.187	2
07:00	23:00	11s 23c	8s 50c	90	0.808	2
08:00	00:00	13s 15c	9s 33c	67	0.958	3
09:00	01:00	16s 8c	13s 59c	44	1.322	3
10:00	02:00	12s 72c	9s 99c	49	0.754	2
11:00	03:00	11s 50c	10s	26	0.868	1
12:00	04:00	9s 25c	8s	42	0.693	2
13:00	05:00	11s	11s	25	0.877	1
14:00	06:00	9s 33c	8s 63c	40	0.635	3
15:00	07:00	7s 49c	7s 44c	59	0.464	2
16:00	08:00	10s 48c	10s 45c	48	0.801	2
17:00	09:00	10s 50c	10s 50c	19	0.842	2
18:00	10:00	8s 63c	7s 63c	49	0.688	3
19:00	11:00	8s 63c	8s 63c	45	0.701	3
20:00	12:00	8s 63c	7s 96c	48	0.709	3
21:00	13:00	7s 99c	7s 49c	36	0.611	2
22:00	14:00	26s 2c	25s 73c	28	1.502	2
23:00	15:00	25s 73c	22s	46	1.480	2

Under 1.000 is a cheap hour to buy; over 1.000 a good hour to sell. Days counts how many days that hour was scanned in the window. The same figures as JSON: /v1/timing/forever.normal.horde.us/2742 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	0.973	1.037	4
01:00	17:00	0.988	1.032	3
02:00	18:00	0.971	1.042	4
03:00	19:00	0.983	1.059	2
04:00	20:00	0.951	1.128	4
05:00	21:00	0.956	1.158	4
06:00	22:00	0.982	1.056	3
07:00	23:00	0.950	1.192	3
08:00	00:00	0.945	1.204	3
09:00	01:00	1.265	0.939	3
10:00	02:00	0.988	1.068	2
11:00	03:00	1.026	0.963	3
12:00	04:00	0.979	0.989	3
13:00	05:00	0.998	0.888	2
14:00	06:00	0.976	0.898	5
15:00	07:00	0.971	0.899	3
16:00	08:00	0.971	0.949	2
17:00	09:00	1.305	0.576	2
18:00	10:00	0.953	1.021	4
19:00	11:00	0.970	0.948	5
20:00	12:00	0.981	0.952	5
21:00	13:00	0.972	0.950	3
22:00	14:00	0.980	0.995	3
23:00	15:00	0.966	1.057	2

Each hour is indexed against the 24 hours around it, item by item across the market's largest positions, then centred so an average hour reads 1.000. For the day-of-week pattern, see market structure.

▸How this is worked out

Every hourly price is divided by the same item's average over the 24 hours around it, so a price drifting over the month does not make one end of the day look dear. The best buy window is the cheapest run of three hours and the best sell window the dearest; the spread buys at the cheap window's lowest buyout and sells at the dear window's typical price less the cut. Forever's history restarts at launch, so a live market's pattern never includes beta scans.

Common questions

What is the best time of day to buy and sell Green Hills of Stranglethorn - Page 18?: On Normal Horde US, Green Hills of Stranglethorn - Page 18 is cheapest from 14:00 to 17:00 UTC (06:00 to 09:00 Pacific) and dearest from 22:00 to 01:00 UTC (14:00 to 17:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 170% after the 5 percent cut.
How is the hour-of-day pattern worked out?: Every hourly price is divided by the same item’s average over the 24 hours around it, so a price drifting up or down over the month does not make one end of the day look dear, and the 24 hours are then centred so an average hour reads 1.000. The best buy window is the cheapest run of three hours and the best sell window the dearest. Hours are UTC, with the hour on the wall in the zone most of the market’s players keep beside them.
How much history does the pattern need?: Each hour of the day needs a few days of scans behind it before its figure means anything. The confidence line reads the thinnest hour: settled from ten days of scans, provisional from three, too early under that, and no pattern at all while fewer than half the hours have been scanned. Scanning Normal Horde US through the night fills the gaps.